You may have heard about a major astronomical event on Wednesday, Jan. 31: the Super Blue Blood Moon!

An event like this – when a Blue Moon coincides with a total lunar eclipse – hasn't been seen in North America since 1866. What makes this lunar event all the more special is that it's also a supermoon.

But what exactly do all these things mean? Let us break it down for you.

Blue Moon

Have you heard of the phrase "once in a blue moon"? When people first started using this phrase, they were referring to things that were rare or even absurd. (Nothing to do with our closest neighbor in space!)

People still use that phrase today, but a Blue Moon now also refers to the second full moon in a calendar month. In reality, it's not as rare as you might think (this year has two, with the next one happening in March).

Supermoon

The name "supermoon" comes from when the Moon appears larger and brighter in the sky, as a result of the Moon being at its closest distance to Earth (this distance is called the perigee).

But when you look up to the stars this week, don't expect the Moon to swallow up the whole sky. In actuality, the Moon only appears, at most, 14 percent larger than usual.

A supermoon happens, on average, every 414 days.

Blood Moon

When the Moon passes into the Earth's shadow during a total lunar eclipse, the Moon often looks blood red. Even though the Moon is in shadow, the light from the sun still passes through the Earth's atmosphere, reflecting off the Moon's surface.

The richness of the red color depends on how deep into the Earth's shadow the Moon travels, as well as the amount of cloud cover in the atmosphere. Some lunar eclipses are bright red, while others are completely dark.

So how do you see the eclipse?

A lunar eclipse becomes visible when the partial phase starts, which is when the Moon begins to enter the Earth's inner shadow (called the umbra). Here in Jersey City, the partial phase begins at 6:48 am. However, day will already be breaking and the Moon will almost be set. With sunrise at 7:07 am and moonset at 7:06 am, the chance of seeing any change in Moon during the 18 minutes between the start of partial eclipse and setting of the moon is slim. If anything is visible, it will be a slight darkening along the Moon's edge.

But even if the eclipse isn't quite visible to you (you'd need to travel West to get the best view!), visitors to LSC's Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium will have a front row seat to the whole astronomical event!

We're currently covering this topic in our live planetarium show, Wonders of the Night Sky, as part of our LSC Space News Now breaking news section.